I agree that poor grammar can show a lack of care. I think it can show other things as well. It can show laziness or intimacy. It can show lack of knowledge or low literacy. And depending on the situation in which I use bad grammar, I’ll judge and be judged differently. My close friends will ignore my sloppy, hastily written text messages but my clients will not. The ideal place to be, and it’s where you are I are, is knowing the rules of standard English well enough to have the confidence to break them. The most important thing to me is communicating your idea clearly, which you have done even without the missing paragraph break.

Jody

E.g. “If you have any questions, please send an email to Tim and myself.” or “… Tim and I”.

I am a fan of communicating simply and clearly. If you want to branch out and try something fancy, you’d better get it right. (E.g. using “myriad” and phrases like “carrots and sticks”).

My favorite site on these matters is Paul Brians’ site on Errors in English.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html

The comments on Youtube and IMDB are so bad, one has to tell them something. Bad grammar equals low credibility.

Like you, poor language affects me on a visceral level. We’re not alone–lots of people get emotional about language. Why? How? It’s that feeling that I find so compelling and that I was trying to explore here. It feels good to be able to spot the problem, but it feels bad to feel superior. And of course, never really superior, because we can never be perfect. As the commenter before you noted, haha.

Jody

I agree with pretty well everything you’ve said above.

The one comment above mine is actually what keeps me from discussing this matter on the internet, because ultimately instead of absorbing the points the author has laid out it becomes an opportunity to go over the content with a fine-tooth comb to find a mistake. While I’m guessing the commenter was simply trying to be witty, this is often the result of such discussions – a pissing contest. We end up with a gang of brainiacs in a forum thread trying to out-do each other. I won’t do that here.

What I found most important about your article is the loss of credibility. While I realize that a person’s command of the English (or any other) language does not necessarily reflect their ability to repair my car – or even perform open-heart surgery for that matter – I just have this nagging feeling that this person’s lack of attention, intelligence or pride is going to come back and bite me later on.

My feeling is that there are three categories of people when it comes to language:
1) those who make a real effort to write and speak clearly and who are generally successful at it
2) those who can get ideas across clearly enough but do not place importance on spelling and grammar
3) those who have difficulty maintaining any level of cohesion.

Obviously there are varying degrees to all those categories, and we occasionally come across “tragedies” such as individuals who are great storytellers but can’t spell to save their lives.

I don’t know what it is, but poor language use just BOTHERS me on some level. There’s a certain respect that I (and I’m sure others) hold for someone who can communicate well, and it’s almost as though we are forced to see the rest of the population as idiotic. I don’t think I could even date a woman who spells badly because on some level I’d be looking down my nose at her! Is it elitism at its worst? I don’t think so. Almost anyone could spell significantly better if they chose to apply themselves.